Mexico weekly ledger., 1887-01-13
A STORY.
The Clever Work Now Accomplished B
Dishonest L~apidaries.

A we'll known diamond dealer, who
has become an expert from many years
handling of precious stones, was near
" taken in a few days ago by Il shrewd
diamond shark, whose new scheme de-
serves attention, as it is likely to be at
tempted in some other quarter. The
cleverly ..doctoreda diamond as a very
valuable stone and IN telling Il plausible
and picturesque story to give it coun-
tenance.
The short, stout man, with a grizzled,
gray mustache, who tried to victimize
the jeweler in question, brought to him
an elegant-looking solitaire ring. pur-
porting to contain a diamond of unusual
size aud brilliancv. To the eye even
OF the expert the stone looked all right,
and the man tried hard 10 make a bar
gain with him at once, without pro-
ceeding any further. As it looked, the
diamond was easily worth f200. and
! the man, who told a tale of dire neces-
sitv, offered to sell it for f100.
The story of the diamond as told by
the man. who gave the name of Charles
Harwood. was that it belonged origin
ally to the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia.
In December 1871. when the Grand
Duke, who was young and handsome,
| attended the reception given in his
honor in the Academy of Music, an
| episode occurred that attracted consid-
cradle attention at the time and has
been much talked of since.
Some time after the promenade, and
when everything vas in motion, the at
| Son+,ov rs tho Il,Ea who bod rnna I'M
stairs with two of the gentleman of the
committee, was attracted by a lady in
one of the corner rows of curtained
balcony boxes. There were but two
ladies in the box, n of them an elder.
ly lady and the other a tail, beautiful
Young ma about 20 years Of age,
who had remarkably fine eyes, which
could not fail TO be noticed.
The Grand Duke expressed 4 desire to
be introduced, which WAS soon gratified,
and after standing for Il few moments
in front Of the box he asked permission
to go inside. In Il little while he asked
the lady to go on the promenade, and
otherwise showed his pleasure at meet.
ing her, but she mildly and persistently
refused.
AS he rose to go, the Duke, holding
her hand a moment and slipping from
one of his fingers a diamond ring, pre-
sentcd it to her and asked her to keep
it as a souvenir of the occasion. The
lady did so. and kept it for several
years, until at last she fell INTO reduced
circumstances and determined to get
rid of the ring in spite of its associa-
tons.
Such, in substance, are the facts of an
occurrence upon which the man with
the diamond to sell told his story. He
represented that the diamond he had
was the one given to TINS lady, and he
e~ndeavored very clearly to trace its his
tory to her. The jeweler, however, in
sisted upon removing the stone from the
setting TO examine it, and this the mar
allowed him to do.
The mans willingness to do this very
nearly threw the jewcler off his guard
at the last moment, especially as upor
removing the stone he could see nothing
wrong with il. Taking up L microscope.
however. he was able to detect, with {
close scrutiny. n slight variation in the
quality and texture of the stone between
the middle" portions and the ends.
Then he held the stone near a lamp
and in n few minutes the whole natur
of the ingenious fraud dawned upor
him. A small real diamond of inferioi
quality formed the top and bottom, ant
a fine piece of crystal had been sand
wiched between them, adding nearl,
ten times to the value of the stone. l
had been so cleverly and ing~eniously
put together with "a coloriess cemen
that it was almost beyond the power O
detection. Tic nan, of course, express
ed surprise. and asserted that the dia
mond was just IS he received it'd
Bits.